My dream started off as a pretty normal nightmare for me. I was camping and there was a murderous skeleton-monster stalking our group. I found myself at the top of a hill, and did a reality-check like I've been practicing while I'm awake. My hands were blurry, and I realized that I was dreaming. As soon as I realized that, threatening silhouettes with glowing red eyes appeared around me. I was slipping out of the dream and scared of what was happening. I didn't know how to make the presences go away. I tried rubbing my hands together and spinning around to stay in the dream, but I couldn't spin and I think I was just rubbing my hands in real life. I woke up.

I thought in lucid dreaming you had more control. It still felt like a nightmare when I realized I was dreaming, so did I just have a nightmare about lucid dreaming? Or was I actually lucid and just couldn't control it? (This was my first time realizing I was dreaming. I only recently learned about lucid dreaming.)

The literal meaning of "lucid dreaming" is the act of being aware you are dreaming, while dreaming. Since you realized you were dreaming, you were lucid dreaming, if only for a moment. The dream, or nightmare, will not suddenly change when you realize you are dreaming. You are in the same place, but now aware, and able to think and move more for yourself and less by whatever drives us to do what we do in dreams.

Gaining control is a skill that develops with practice. It's not uncommon to have no control over the dream when you first start, because you are used to the limited control you have in the waking world. It's also harder to concentrate when there are scary things around, so that might also have something to do with your lack of control. Keep at it, you're getting somewhere!